PEORIA — An exceptionally rare coinciding of Thanksgiving and the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah sparked a unique idea to celebrate the two holidays for a Peoria Jewish congregation.

Members of the Anshai Emeth congregation lit a menorah — sized at five feet tall and 14 feet wide — Friday night filled with 700 boxes of macaroni and cheese. Collected by the children of Anshai Emeth Religious School, each box will be donated to the Common Place food bank after the eight-day Hanukkah holiday. Any additional boxes will be donated to those affected by the recent tornados.

During Hanukkah, which began at sundown Wednesday, candles are lit on a nine-branched menora. The Jewish calendar began early this year, according to a press release, which allowed the religious and national holidays to overlap in an extraordinary bit of timing.

"The meeting of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving is a once in a lifetime celestial occurrence, as it will only happen again in 79,000 years," said Anshai Emeth rabbi Karen Kriger Bogard.

Though the two holidays virtually never coincide, Bogard said both have many thematic similarities.

"Each year during Hanukkah, we give thanks that the small amount of oil lasted eight days, a Hanukkah miracle," Bogard said. "On Thanksgiving, we spend time with family and friends, grateful for all that we have in our life."

Thomas Bruch can be reached at 686-3188 or tbruch@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasBruch.